


Unit Malfunction

by ersatz_nonsense



Category: Final Fantasy XV, Original Work
Genre: Developing Friendships, FFXV OC, First Meetings, Friendship, Gen, No Romance, Original Character(s), Project Fracture, i missed writing glacies and i've changed him up from when i first made him, i'm just making things up as i go tbh, simply vibing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-14
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:20:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24185014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ersatz_nonsense/pseuds/ersatz_nonsense
Summary: "P-F 090819-03 did not remember his last orders. The last clear memory in his mind was… nothing. Everything was fuzzy, and he didn’t need to run a check on himself to know that his processors were malfunctioning. That was something P-F 090819-03 needed to report as soon as possible. The only problem was that he had no idea where he was, no way to report to anyone from the outskirts of what looked like a city. After running through multiple scenarios, P-F 090819-03 concluded that the best option would be to stay in place and wait for orders."A malfunction in an MT from Project Fracture leads to him meeting the future queen of the kingdom he and the other MTs of his same model were meant to destroy.
Kudos: 1





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is mostly just... exposition? This thing isn't preplanned at all I'm just going for it
> 
> Nadia belongs to @wuotaz on twitter :^)

P-F 090819-03 did not remember his last orders. The last clear memory in his mind was… nothing. Everything was fuzzy, and he didn’t need to run a check on himself to know that his processors were malfunctioning. That was something P-F 090819-03 needed to report as soon as possible. The only problem was that he had no idea where he was, no way to report to anyone from the outskirts of what looked like a city. After running through multiple scenarios, P-F 090819-03 concluded that the best option would be to stay in place and wait for orders.

Fourteen minutes had passed, according to his internal clock, before anyone approached the area P-F 090819-03 was in. Even factoring in distance, the figure was small, but they carried themself with importance. Any human was considered P-F 090819-03’s superior - he was, after all, simply a machine made to be used. This human seemed to be of a higher rank than normal, though. As they approached, P-F 090819-03 saw long, silver-white hair, and a loose navy dress, delicate imagery contrasting the strong presence this human gave off. P-F 090819-03 simply stood and watched as they approached, passing by and walking away a few paces before turning abruptly and coming toward him at a faster pace. 

“Who are you? What are you doing alone out here?”

The person seemed to be a young woman. Something about her looked familiar, a nagging at the back of his mind, but he couldn’t pinpoint what it was. P-F 090819-03 snapped to attention, pulling his heels together with a click of his boots, right hand coming up over his chest in a fist. “Model 73640, P-F 090819-03. Location: unknown, orders: unknown. Unit processing has malfunctioned, requesting maintenance and updated orders.” 

Upon seeing the confused, concerned look on the woman’s face, P-F 090819-03 felt the expression mirrored on his own. He hadn’t spoken incorrectly, gave all the necessary information - why was she responding like this? “Do you require further clarification?”

Instead of answering, the woman looks more closely at P-F 090819-03’s right wrist, the one displayed clearly on his chest. His barcode was there, black ink stark against pale, synthetic skin hiding most of the mechanical joints of his arm. Something within him squirmed under her gaze, another side effect of the malfunction, likely - MTs did not feel, but here he was, dealing with… some kind of emotion. He couldn’t put words to it. Slender fingers reached to touch P-F 090819-03’s arm, but stopped on the way there.  
“How did you get here? You do know what this barcode means, right?” Her voice was quiet, and she pulled her hand back, like she’d done something wrong. 

“Due to the processor malfunction, the unit cannot be sure of how it arrived at the location. It can only assume it was transported here on a mission.” It felt wrong, bad, for P-F 090819-03 to ‘assume’ anything. He had only malfunctioned once before, and for a much shorter period of time. Would his superiors simply fix him, once he found out how to get back? Or would his punishment be more severe, like the cases of two others of his same model? Something in P-F 090819-03’s chest stuttered, an intensifying feeling of that squirming he felt before. “Th-, I, y-yes, I… the barcode is the designation of this unit. My identification.” Words stumbled out that P-F 090819-03 had never used for himself before, saying ‘I’ and ‘my’ as if he was a person, not a weapon. 

The expression on the woman’s face softened. “Oh, poor thing. Go ahead and relax, hmm? I’ll help you out.” She smiled. “I’m Nadia. Can I see your hand?”

P-F 090819-03 obeys, falling out of attention, extending his right hand out to… Nadia. The name, too, felt familiar, but even that and her appearance did nothing to form a cohesive memory. “May th-” he stopped. Corrected his speech. She acted more comfortably around him when he used ‘human’ words for himself. “May I ask where I am?” His eyes drifted down to his hand when he felt the strange texture around his wrist, saw the strange tangle of cloth and metal covering his wrist, and the barcode along with it. P-F 090819-03 couldn’t take his eyes off it.

“You’re right outside the crown city, in the kingdom of Bellator,” Nadia answered, and she finished securing the… thing around his wrist with a pat on his hand. “Keep that bracelet on for me, okay? I know a few people who wouldn’t be happy seeing a-” She paused. “Seeing someone who’s not from around here.”

P-F 090819-03 knows he is a MT, a fabricated farce of a human used as a shell for a weapon. He thinks he is okay with that, and he thinks Nadia is okay with that, too. She doesn’t have to pretend he is something he’s not, but if she wants him to pretend, he will. He isn’t allowed to disobey her. 

“Because I am a MT,” he stated. Using ‘I’ has quickly become familiar. “Technically, I am only one year old, if that will help ease tensions. Young children are not considered dangerous. Right now, you are my superior, and I will follow your instructions.”

Nadia laughed. P-F 090819-03 hadn’t heard that sound so close to him before, just faint noises of it behind walls, where the humans thought he couldn’t hear them at all. That sound was his favorite out of all the sounds he’s heard, P-F 090819-03 decided.

Wait.

Since when was he able to have favorites?

“—funny, you know that?” Nadia looked at P-F 090819-03 with a bright smile on her face. She tugged at his sleeve, guiding him in the direction of the city. P-F 090819-03 followed, slightly behind, as was appropriate, letting Nadia hold his wrist.

“...Are you hungry?” The two of them had been walking in silence for approximately three minutes. Nadia appeared to be displeased by this. “Is there any kind of food you like? We can make anything for you once we get back.”

Information on the source of energy for P-F 090819-03, and the other units of the same models, was not something he was meant to share with unknown humans. But… Nadia wasn’t ‘unknown’ anymore, was she? And if he doesn’t answer, Nadia would… be upset. She requires information, and it is his job to give it. He doesn’t want Nadia to be upset. “The unit’s source of energy is derived from daemonic miasma, it neither requires or is able to consume human food. If necessary, the unit will eliminate daemons to use as energy.” 

That same look came over Nadia’s face - confusion, concern, and something else, an emotion P-F 090819-03 didn’t have a name for. And then, that stuttering in his chest, the feeling of being wrong, a fear of being disposed of if he performed incorrectly. But she had asked him a question, and he answered with the requested information. P-F 090819-03 was malfunctioning again. He should not be feeling. 

Nadia must have known he was malfunctioning, because her face softened back into a smile. For him. “I’ll take that as a no, then!” And they continue walking.


	2. Chapter 2

It didn’t take long for them to reach the city - Nadia would occasionally fill the silence with casual questions, which P-F 090819-03 answered to the best of his knowledge. Nothing sparked true conversation, though, and P-F 090819-03 didn’t initiate any of the talking. He halted when they reached the gate, and stared up at the large barrier within it that thrummed with magic. The magitek core and daemonic energy within him thrummed as well - two opposing forces with a singular ‘heartbeat’. 

“You’ll be safe in here,” Nadia urged him. “That barrier will keep out anyone who might try to hurt you.”

P-F 090819-03 looked apprehensive, but began to move forward again. That feeling came back, but differently, this time. If he had a heart, it would have been racing. The world around him darkened and closed in as he and Nadia went through the gates, and P-F 090819-03 could feel every bit of daemonic energy screaming at him to leave, turn around, run, and never look back. But he still moved forward, unconsciously gripping Nadia’s arm as they passed through the barrier. The opposing energies writhed under his skin, even through his artificial limbs. His fingers tightened, an iron grasp on Nadia, then just like that they were through, and he released her. P-F 090819-03 was, at least, according to Nadia, safe. She made some excuses to the guards, something about ‘war’ and ‘refugee’ and ‘he’s probably lost his entire family’.   
The guards, P-F 090819-03 noticed, addressed Nadia as ‘Your Highness’.

“I wasn’t aware you are royalty. Apologies for any disrespect I’ve shown in addressing you previously.” So Nadia was important, like he had guessed from the way she carried herself. P-F 090819-03 fiddled with his bracelet again.

Nadia waved off his apology. “Nahhhhh don’t worry about it. I don’t mind at all when people speak casually to me - and you especially don’t need to concern yourself with all that royalty nonsense.” P-F 090819-03 has filed this information away for later. He won’t forget. It is okay to simply call Nadia by her name.

Now she was the one taking his hand, leading P-F 090819-03 to a new location. The city began to grow around them, buildings reaching up into the clear blue sky. One, in particular, spiraled high above the rest, elegant curves and soaring buttresses combining old and new architecture into a glorious castle. He must have been staring at it for a while, because Nadia spoke up.

“That’s where we’re headed,” she said. “You can stay there, so I’ll be able to help you out.” Nadia paused, remembering something. “You need some kind of name, other than that… code, or whatever you told me.” 

“P-F 090819-03,” he said helpfully.

“How about Nines?” Nadia asked. “Just for now, at least. If you want to pick something out later, you can.”

He ponders this. ‘Nines’... he repeated the name in his head, trying it out. “...Yes. I’ll be… Nines.” Such a strange feeling, saying it out loud. Another malfunction, but a willing one this time. He was purposefully stepping away from his past, choosing to accept this as his life, at least for now.

The smile on Nadia’s face dropped suddenly. “Oh yeah. You have to go meet my mom.” She sighed. “It’d be better if she knows about you sooner than later.”

Mom? What does Nadia mean? Nines certainly doesn’t have any - ah. The mother of the princess… would be the queen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> waaaaaaah new chapter! i'm slowly chipping away at this again - still with no real idea for how it's gonna go, i'm just writing and seeing where it takes me ! thanks for reading~

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! this is the most i've written for something in a LONG time and i still have more i wanna write! stay tuned for more shenanigans ;)


End file.
